Penicillamine therapy for pediatric cystinuria: experience from a cohort of American children.
OBJECTIVE
Cystinuria, an inherited defect of dibasic amino acid transport, causes accumulation of urinary cystine and cystine urolithiasis. In adults penicillamine reduces stone formation but has a high incidence of dose limiting toxicity. We evaluated the effects of penicillamine in preventing stone formation and with respect to toxicity in our cystinuria cohort at a pediatric biochemical genetics clinic.


METHODS
We reviewed the charts of all 11 children with cystinuria treated at our clinic using a gradual dose escalation of penicillamine. Mean +/- SD patient age at diagnosis was 5.8 +/- 4.3 years (range 1.2 to 12). We tracked urinary cystine concentration before and after initiation of treatment, penicillamine side effects and incidence of new stones during maintenance therapy.


RESULTS
During the gradual escalation of penicillamine to the target dose none of the 11 patients experienced toxicity and all had improved urinary cystine concentration (mean +/- SD percent reduction 54% +/- 25%, range 5% to 81%). We followed the patients for a total of 1,203 months (mean +/- SD 109 +/- 73 months, range 41 to 221), periodically assessing urinary cystine concentration, urine protein content, complete blood count, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine and liver function. During this time only 2 patients experienced significant side effects and no patient had stones or stone crises while compliant with treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
In our cohort penicillamine was well tolerated after gradual initiation and it reduced urinary cystine concentration. Long-term compliance with the medication appeared to protect patients from acute stone crises.
DeBerardinis
Ralph J
RJ
Section of Metabolic Diseases, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Coughlin
Curtis R
CR
Kaplan
Paige
P
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003555:Cystinuria / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010396:Penicillamine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*
D010396:Penicillamine